The Beach: Why Danny Boyle’s Unloved Movie Is a Beautiful Thing

The Beach is director Danny Boyle’s fourth movie based on the 1996 novel by Alex Garland. It follows Richard (Leonardo Di Caprio), an American backpacker in Thailand who is given a map to a secret island by a Scottish man who calls himself Daffy (Robert Carlyle).

It was Boyle’s first real Hollywood movie and also his first without Ewan McGregor who had been his lead in Shallow Grave (1994), Trainspotting (1996), and A Life Less Ordinary (1997). This led to a falling out between the director and actor. It was alleged that McGregor was expected to be cast as the protagonist Richard, but Boyle was offered a bigger budget by 20th Century Fox if he cast Leonardo Di Caprio and made him American instead of British. Boyle admits that the situation at the time was handled badly and the two have since reconciled and made Trainspotting 2 (2017).

Not starring in The Beach didn’t do any harm to Ewan McGregor’s career anyway. He continued with the Star Wars prequels (1999-2005), Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Big Fish (2003) in the next few years. Both McGregor and Di Caprio continue to be A-list actors to this day.

I’m sure he would have offered something interesting to the role of Richard, but Di Caprio is perfect casting for a naïve and wide-eyed tourist experiencing Thailand for the first time. He was also the hottest property in Hollywood after Titanic (1997) and was probably the main reason the movie made money. The Beach made $144 million from a budget of $50 million.

The movie is by no means universally liked, but there are many plus points. For one, the movie is a fantastic portrayal of a society and the human condition. It shows that even if your setting is a paradise, a society will still have structures and hierarchies and will eventually fall. The islanders are made out to be a perfect civilization, what we should all aspire to, but they are still flawed humans.

Boyle is fantastic at making death raw and realistic in his films. It’s sudden, brutal, and can happen to anyone at any time. Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and 28 Days Later all have unexpected deaths that just occur in an instant and change the entire course of the film. The Beach is all hedonism, optimism and joy before the shark attack which causes the death of one of the islanders and critically injures another. It shows the fragility of the islanders and any society when something chaotic and tragic happens.

It also shows the dark underbelly of any society. Everything looks perfect on the surface but there is always a darkness that keeps everything moving the way it needs to. The critically wounded islander is left to die in the forest so the others cannot hear his screams for help. Unable to send him to the mainland for treatment so as not to expose their island to outsiders, they isolate him so they can continue with their parties and carefree sex.

It is a striking message of the film. Any group of people will tolerate a certain amount of injustice, as long as they don’t see it, if it means that they can continue to enjoy their freedom and comforts and be left alone be outsiders. The is a blood debt that must be paid for our happiness and, as long as its not us, there has to be a sacrifice.

The scenes where Richard starts to descend into madness himself are intriguing. He has been ostracized from the island by leader Sal (Tilda Swinton) after she discovers he has made a copy of the secret map and given it to some young Americans. He is sent out by her to wait and make sure they do not enter. Here he begins to lose his mind in the jungle. The opening scenes of The Beach show Apocalypse Now being watched by a group of tourists in a Thai cinema. Richard derides them in his narration saying how people come thousands of miles just to watch movies. Well, he very much lives the movie and becomes like Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz.

Boyle has a way of showing good people descend into madness. He is aware of the acute fragility of the mental state and how traumatic events can cause anyone to spiral downwards. Christopher Ecclestone’s David in Shallow Grave and Mark Strong’s Pinbacker in Sunshine (2007) are examples of characters who have just been pushed too far. Here, Richard is driven out of society, and he becomes obsessed and paranoid. It is played very well by Di Caprio who was really growing into the proper actor he was going to become later in the decade.

Much of the cast is really good. It is a mix of nationalities, races and characters that have descended upon the island, and it feels natural. Your mind can picture their arrival and backstory just by seeing them briefly. The myth of utopia is heightened by the look of the cast. Their beauty perpetuates the legacy of the island.

The music, as with most Boyle films, is fantastic and really puts you back in the early of the early noughties without sounding dated. ‘Pure Shores’ by All Saints was such an iconic song to accompany the release in the movie. The soundtrack will relax you when you are in the island and stress you out when that has faded. Moby’s ‘Porcelain’ is the perfect song to introduce you to the island. His songs were in such high demand at this point to be in movies, and here is one of the best uses of one of his tracks.

The film also looks beautiful. It’s a cliché to say how a movie can transport you to a location but The Beach really does. The cinematography used to shoot the landscapes is really impressive. The island can look like heaven or hell depending on the circumstances.

There are some issues with The Beach (2000). There is too much narration from Di Caprio in the first third of the film. Being based on a book, it makes sense because we want to know his thoughts, but in some instances, it would have been adequate just showing the audience and letting them decide what he is thinking. That being said, John Hodge’s script is good for the most part with decent dialogue.

Some of the scenes also drag sometimes and the middle lasts longer than it needs to. Scenes are longer than you expect them to be, whether that be on the island or in the forest when it is just Richard and his mind. There could have been some effective edits that could have made the film snappier at points.

However, on the hole, The Beach is a film that is worth seeing again or for the first time. There is a lot of substance under the style if you go looking for it. And the style isn’t bad either.

What The Critics Said (21% Critics Score on Rotten Tomatoes)

“In pitching for the mass market, Boyle's film has allowed itself to be rebranded as a Hollywood star vehicle, a cynical assemblage that is never more than the sum of its market-researched parts.” Xan Brooks – Sight and Sounds Magazine

“The Beach is nothing to write home about, though the landscapes are ravishing. The movie itself is neither fish nor fowl.” David Ansen – Newsweek

“A movie that tries to take us from heaven to hell but winds up leaving us in limbo: exasperated and dumfounded.” Michael Wilmington – Chicago Tribune